Power of Human Sacrifice
by cleverlion21
Summary: Because for some being a jinchūriki was a curse, a burden, a duty, a sacrifice. But for Uzumaki Naruto it was a way of life.


**Power of Human Sacrifice**

– I do not own Naruto. All rights belong to Kishimoto Masashi. –

Nowadays, what with Akatsuki on the move and Madara trying to fulfil his Eye of the Moon Plan, it was common knowledge that Uzumaki Naruto was the Kyūbi jinchūriki, had been since Yang-Kurama was sealed in him less than thirty minutes after his birth. But it wasn't always so well known. Most people hadn't been aware of it for quite some time. Heck, Naruto hadn't always known. Those that knew of this fact believed he'd found out after he'd failed the Genin Exam for the third time, when the traitor Mizuki had told him, to throw him off balance. They assumed wrongly, but Naruto couldn't blame them. It was, after all, the first time anyone had truly told him, and he wasn't known as the sharpest tool in the box, but as someone who had trouble figuring out the obvious. There was no reason to believe that he had connected the dots for the secret they were actually trying to hide from him. His reaction when he was told – freezing in shock, then running away after Iruka took the large shuriken for him – certainly seemed to support it. Never mind that this reaction actually pertained to something else.

But he had found out by himself. In all honesty, it actually hadn't been that difficult. He'd always known _something_ was up. After all, though the villagers may have acted as if he didn't exist when they were around him, as soon as he was out of hearing distance, he was a popular topic. Out of normal hearing distance, that is. Naruto had always had better than average hearing. Not by much, but enough to hear the whispered discussions. What with how often "demon" was used, and with what had happened on the day he was born, it wasn't hard to conclude that the Kyūbi had something to do with it.

As to how he'd found out? Well, contrary to popular belief, Naruto loved to read, had since he'd first been taught. And why wouldn't he? After all books didn't judge. They didn't care that he was _that kid,_ didn't pick on his every mistake and put him down, didn't ignore him and his questions, or even teach him wrong. Books didn't care who you were, they taught everyone the same. All you needed was the patience to read and understand them. One of his favourite topics to read on was history, specifically the four Hokage. They were his heroes, and he'd embraced their philosophy – to protect others, no matter the cost to themselves – from the moment he read about it. With all his reading on the Hokage, it was inevitable that he'd stumble on the term jinchūriki, what with the Shodai's actions of separating the Bijū among the Five Great Nations leading to their creation. And suddenly it all made sense: the way the villagers behaved, the happenings on his birthday. The appearance of a seal on his stomach when channelling chakra was confirmation he didn't need: he was a jinchūriki, the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no Yōko to be precise. Following that realization, while looking for all the information there was on jinchūriki, he came across the meaning of the term: _Power of Human Sacrifice._ This changed young Naruto's entire outlook on life.

Earlier, before the realization, when thinking about the philosophy to protect others, he had asked himself what exactly had to be protected and come up with the following answer: one, their lives and two, their happiness. Contrary to what most people would think, Naruto considered the second a great deal more important than the first. In his short life he'd lived through a great deal of unhappiness, but it was those short moments of happiness that let him pull through. If he could live longer by giving up those moments, he wouldn't consider it worth it. But, if he had the chance to, in exchange for cutting his life short, experience more of them, he'd take it in a heart beat.

Now with the knowledge of being a jinchūriki, something the Shodai – one of his heroes – had created, a destiny the Yondaime – another of his heroes – had entrusted him with, that the Sandaime – also a hero of his – believed he would succeed in, he made a choice. _"The Power of Human Sacrifice"_ as a concept seemed a step further in the philosophy of protecting others lives and happiness, no matter the cost to oneself. And while simply holding the Bijū back could be considered enough of a sacrifice, Naruto had never been one to do things by half. Instead, he chose to give everything – his dreams, his hopes, his happiness – to insure others would live, and more importantly, be happy. From that day on, the only selfishness he allowed himself was prioritising some people over others.

He endured the indifference and hatred pointed his way with a smile and a laugh, and then pranked everyone. He didn't mind, because he knew they were still hurting from the Kyūbi attack. And if blaming someone was what they needed to heal and move on, then he'd take their hatred on himself, even though he was innocent, because he would do anything he could to ensure people's happiness, and it was better they blame him then someone else. That his smiles and pranks relieved some of their guilt, allowing them to believe that they weren't truly hurting him, was just a lucky side effect of the small bit of selfishness he allowed himself. Because he knew from experience that those that cared for him (old man Ichiraku, Ayame, the Sandaime, and later Iruka) didn't like seeing him unhappy, and so the fact that he clearly wasn't, and also hadn't lost his spirit, if the pranking was anything to go by, gave them no small amount of relief and happiness. Not that he wasn't truly happy. After all, he loved bringing others happiness. No, he just wouldn't have seen the need to smile so often and so widely.

He wasn't truly an idiot, but nobody knew that, and so he pretended to be. Partly because any future enemies might already be wary because of his status as a jinchūriki, and his "obvious" stupidity would make them lower their guard and underestimate him. Partly because the villagers seemed to believe that they'd have less to fear from a weak jinchūriki. Not that he could understand that sentiment, after all his will was all that stood between his tenant and freedom, and the weaker he was, the more often he'd have to rely on the Bijū's chakra, and the more susceptible he would be towards it. But no matter what he thought, that was what they believed, and so his idiot persona was born. When he was alone however, he trained diligently to become as strong as possible. Not that the Academy wasn't training, after all it took a lot of skill to be persistently bad in such a way that it wasn't obvious, without completely flunking everything.

There was one more thing he did as soon as he confirmed his jinchūriki status: Sitting down on his bed and meditating, he was drawn inwards and opened his eyes to find himself in a sewer. When he had decided to protect and bring happiness to everyone he could, he had meant _everyone,_ so he strode onwards until he reached the bars. The Kyūbi had roared and waved his tails angrily of course, but Naruto was stubborn and he had a lot more patience than anyone gave him credit for, and the fox was a lot more lonely than anyone realized, so within the year Naruto had his first true friend, as well as a name to call him by: Kurama.

Naruto had by now deliberately flunked the Genin Exam three times. On the one hand, this was used to highlight his "idiocy" and therefore make the villagers happy, on the other hand Kurama had told him what had happened on that night 12 years ago, during his birth, and he really wanted to become as good as he currently could on his own before going into the field. But, as he listened to Mizuki weaving his tale of lies, he knew he didn't have any other choice. Oh, he knew this was a trap, but he was Uzumaki Naruto, the idiot, the village pariah. His word would never be believed, especially over a chūnin academy teacher he was accusing of treason. At the same time, he couldn't just let the traitor steal Konoha's most dangerous collection of jutsu's, or even simply get away, so he was going to have to spring this trap.

It had been going pretty well, until Iruka pushed him out of the way to take the shuriken Mizuki had thrown, which Naruto had meant to be hit by to lull the traitor into a false sense of security. His Kurama-enhanced healing factor would have closed the wounds almost instantly after the shuriken were removed. Instead he froze, not because of the words Mizuki uttered next, as everyone else seemed to believe, but because of his other teachers actions. _He_ was supposed to be the one that sacrificed everything. It had never even occurred to him that someone would do the same for him. He just couldn't comprehend the fact anyone would care that much for him. So he spent the rest of the night in a state of shock, until he was alone in his apartment and able to go about rationalising it, so it would _all just make sense._ Iruka was an Academy teacher, and he took that duty seriously, never being unfair towards Naruto even when he'd still blamed him, just like everyone else. Teaching and protecting the students was his duty, and that was the only reason he'd taken those shuriken, and then jumped back in front of Naruto to take the large shuriken meant for him, and then had still continued on, leading Mizuki away. It really was the only reason, right? A part of Naruto knew there was more to it, but accepting that someone could truly care about _him_ went so fundamentally against his world-view, that it would open up all those little wounds that had never quite healed, which he had buried deep, as well as opening him up to new hurt, and no matter what else Naruto was, a part of him remained as that scared little boy who couldn't understand why everyone hated him. And no matter how strong Naruto was, not that he knew that or would believe it if anyone told him, everyone has a breaking point. And if he acknowledged what this meant, if he opened up his world-view to include this, he might just reach his.

So he ignored the obvious implications and sought reassurance in Kurama, who was currently not only his trusted friend and confidant, but also the anchor to which his fragile sanity was tied. And that was how it stayed until, during that fateful mission in Wave country, Uchiha Sasuke jumped in front of a seemingly fatal attack meant for Naruto. The shock of not only seeing another person sacrifice themselves for him, but it being the one person he never would have expected it from, caused him to unconsciously draw on Kurama's chakra. This was something he hadn't planned on doing for a long time, because them being friends didn't change the fact that Kurama's chakra was filled with malice and hatred, and the only way to get rid of that was to separate him from his chakra. This, however, could only be achieved if Naruto won an all out battle between them, and he knew he was nowhere near that strong. Until then the malice and hatred the chakra contained would inevitably draw him into a berserker-like rage as soon as he drew on it, which is exactly what happened, until the shock of seeing Haku's face knocked him out of it.

Later, when the fighting was over, Naruto tried rationalising Sasuke's actions, as he had with Iruka, but found he couldn't. Because it couldn't be a way to fulfil his dream – Sasuke would need to be alive for either part – and the only duty Sasuke could be fulfilling was saving his teammate according to Kakashi's lessons of teammates first – which he knew Sasuke wouldn't, couldn't believe in after watching his beloved brother murder his clan again and again and again – meaning Sasuke had truly done it because he cared for _him,_ Naruto. And as he realized this, he had no choice but to start expanding his view of the world. To cope, he created another anchor for his sanity, the one who was responsible for setting this change in motion: Uchiha Sasuke.

But, while Naruto, spurred on by the realization that, yes, there was actually someone who cared for him, tried ever more desperately to deepen that friendship and clung onto the precious bond he had been given, events had begun unfolding. More and more enemies of increasing danger started creeping out of the woodwork and Naruto had to show more and more of his strength to protect both his comrades and himself. And so, while Naruto was still struggling to comprehend the concept that someone might actually care for him and expand his world-view to include it, using his bond with Sasuke to keep him anchored through the uncertainty, he wasn't the only one who had to cope with finding out something he had been utterly certain of to be untrue.

For Sasuke, Naruto had always been the annoying idiot who had somehow broken down his walls and wormed himself into his heart without even trying. To now see him seemingly advance faster than him in leaps, completely shattered that belief. But instead of finding an anchor like Naruto had, he clung ever more tightly to his goal of killing his brother and thereby avenging his clan. The invasion, during which Naruto was able to defeat an enemy Sasuke had had trouble even touching, finding out that his brother was going after Naruto of all people, as well as being put under his Tsukuyomi again, were simply the final straws that broke the camels back. So when the Sound Four arrived with Orochimaru's offer, he agreed with barely a thought to anything but Itachi and his goal to kill him. And when Naruto stood before him, his friend, the one he'd willingly sacrificed himself for scant months earlier with the full expectation of dying, when Naruto tried to stop him, all he could see was a reminder of his failures. Of being a genius, but never good enough, of the gap between himself and _that man,_ a gap that seemed to grow ever wider even as he tried so desperately to close it, and he attacked.

Naruto defended himself of course, because the longer he lived, the more he could help people, and Kurama was tied to him, so his life was always going to be the last thing he sacrificed, because after that he would have nothing more to give. But even as he fought, his heart wasn't in it, until his desperation subconsciously caused him to pull on Kurama's chakra and he flew into a berserker-rage once again. But, as he and Sasuke were facing each other, Rasengan and Chidori in their hands, Naruto realized something. Since his realization stemming from the events on that bridge in Wave, he had formed many bonds: the rest of the Konoha 11, Kakashi, Iruka, Jiraiya, Gaara, Tsunade, Shizune, the Konohamaru Corps. But of all of them, Sasuke was still his strongest, his primary anchor, and enough time had not yet passed for his other bonds to grow to a level of strength that might begin to equal it. Currently, his psyche was strained enough by Sasuke's betrayal. But if that bond snapped completely, if he lost all hope of it ever being restored, he wouldn't be able to cope. He would crack, he would go insane. And with subconscious access to Kurama's chakra that would be a disaster. But, more than that, he found that he simply _didn't want to._ Sasuke was his _friend,_ damn it, and he didn't want to kill him. So, in his most selfish move yet, Naruto pulled his attack so the Rasengan would hit Sasuke's headband instead, and stood still, taking the Chidori to his chest. If Sasuke wanted to kill him, then so be it, because for once in his life Naruto was being selfish, not thinking of the world, his village, or even his other friends. Just this once he wanted to be selfish, choosing Sasuke over all of them.

Sasuke didn't kill him then, but Naruto remembered his choice, remembered he would have let him. And though he may not regret his choice, would've in fact done the same thing again without question, he still understood how selfish it had been. And so he threw himself ever harder into the life he had chosen for himself all those years ago after coming across that innocuous word in the library.

Because for some being a jinchūriki was a curse, a burden, a duty, a sacrifice. But for Uzumaki Naruto it was a way of life.


End file.
